THE 29TH AMENDMENT

As of this frigid mid-January we are faced once again with the prospect of a federal government shutdown for want of a budget or another Continuing Resolution (“CR”) authorizing deficit spending.

The CLB has already declared the theme of the 28th Amendment (which is not yet written or proposed officially). So this Article is about the 29th Amendment. The theme is that Congressional salaries (to current Representatives or Senators, their staffs, and recipients of Congressional pensions) should be forfeited during any shutdown allowed by Congress. Any other federal employee might have some temporary suspension of pay but no forfeiture of it. If Congress cannot do its job, its entitlement to compensation comes into question. This would be Section I.

Section II of the CLB’s 29th Amendment would declare the reduction of the same congressional compensation to a mere subsistence sum for any calendar year following the Congressional failure to pass a balanced budget.

Why penalize the staffers and pensioners? The retired Representatives or Senators who never passed a balanced budget are unworthy of the deficit financing of their retirement. To penalize the staffers is an efficient device for making certain that a serving Representative or Senator will feel the desperation. The possibility of a 29th Amendment salary cut should be known to any applicant for a Congressional staffing post. While some of our congressmen are wealthy enough to ignore a cut to their own compensation, cuts to the staff compensation would be another matter entirely.

Just the other day I mentioned to Uncle Ned my idea for the 29th Amendment. He asked how I expected Congress to do that to itself. He had a point. Congress would not enact a punitive measure against itself. Uncle Ned was right to challenge me. Let’s refer to Article V of the United States Constitution.

The conventional way for an amendment to get started toward approval begins with the vote of “two thirds of both Houses” (of Congress) before submission to the States for approval. That won’t happen for the CLB version of the 29th Amendment. The other path to passing an amendment begins with “two thirds of several states” (34 now) calling for a “Convention for proposing Amendments.” That prospect frightens me beyond description. A rogue Constitutional Convention could very well be the beginning of the end for the USA. An amendment proposed by Congress or at such a convention would not take effect until ratified by three-fourths of the States (38 now).